STUART Pearce must be sick of the sight of Blackburn Rovers.

On Saturday he tried to beat them for the seventh time in his managerial career, and for a seventh time he came up short.

Six times his Manchester City side were denied by Blackburn, with the FA Cup defeat at Ewood Park in March 2007 one of the defining results in a season that saw him lose his job at the end of the campaign.

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For 45 minutes at the City Ground he looked like he was heading for seventh heaven, but after a remarkable second half turnaround it was former Forest man Gary Bowyer who was left re-enacting the famous Psycho celebration from Euro 96 in front of the away end.

And how the 1,043 away fans roared their approval as Bowyer pumped his fists and waved his arms. It had been a second half to savour.

Bowyer had taken the decision to leave out Rudy Gestede and bring in Ryan Tunnicliffe to provide an extra body in midfield, in an attempt to stifle Forest’s attacking threat, while captain Grant Hanley returned in place of Adam Henley.

But at the break it was the home side who led, after Matty Fryatt’s fortunate strike. Rovers had been edging their way back into the game during the second period when Bowyer unleashed Gestede alongside Jordan Rhodes just after the hour mark.

Fifteen minutes later Rovers had scored three times and the three points were heading back to East Lancashire.

Rarely can Bowyer’s Blackburn have played as well as they did in the final 25 minutes as they swarmed forward and created chance after chance.

Forest may have been without a win in seven, having previously won seven of their first nine this season, but they were unbeaten at the City Ground and they were being roared on by a crowd of 27,000.

Once Gestede and Rhodes linked up they had no answer to Rovers’ dominance though, and it could easily have been five or six by the end.

It was the first time since Rovers had been beaten 3-1 at Wolves at the end of August that Bowyer had elected to strengthen the midfield and play just one striker.

The aim was to restrict a team who have scored plenty of goals already this season, including 14 at home in six games, and although Forest didn’t exactly batter down the door in the first half, Rovers struggled to make any impression going forward.

Their only efforts came from distance, with Marshall cutting in from the left touchline and seeing a shot deflected over, and Evans having a shot deflected wide from the edge of the area.

Forest grew into the game as the half went on, with Michail Antonio and Britt Assombalonga, who the club spent around £6.5million on in the summer, their dominant performers.

A swift counter attack saw Antonio’s low ball into the centre just elude Assambalonga, while the striker saw a shot from inside the area blocked by Evans.

Tunnicliffe was also forced to throw himself in the way of a Dan Harding shot, after David Vaughan’s free kick from the edge of the box had deflected to the left-back off the wall.

The goal came with eight minutes of the first half remaining. Assambalonga ran at Duffy on the right hand side of the box and his audacious outside-of-the-boot effort bounced back off the post after bending round Steele, but it rebounded straight into Fryatt who bundled the ball home.

The hosts could easily have doubled their lead in the only minute of injury time at the end of the half, with Assambalonga managing to run in behind Duffy, but he dragged his shot inches wide of the far post.

Rovers improved after the break but they still couldn’t find that elusive final ball, with Marshall’s cross claimed by Darlow with Rhodes poised to head in, before Baptiste over hit a cross from the right with several teammates waiting in the box.

As well as Marshall’s crossing his long throws were becoming more of a weapon, and on the hour mark one led to the visitors best chance so far, with Rhodes poked shot at goal blocked by a defender, before the clearance ricocheted off the Rovers forward and narrowly over.

On 62 minutes Bowyer introduced Gestede for Evans and went to 4-4-2, with the change having an immediate impact.

Four minutes later Rovers were level. Marshall engineered some crossing space for himself on the left, and Darlow’s attempted punch clear was weak. The ball fell to Baptiste inside the box, and he smashed it home past two defenders on the line.

Forest responded immediately and Steele made a good stop with his feet to deny Lansbury from 12-yards, and seconds later the same player curled a shot from the edge of the area against the post.

With 15 minutes to go Rovers took the lead. Williamson found some space to break into down the right, and his cross was inch perfect for Gestede who headed down and past Darlow at the back post.

And two minutes later the turnaround was complete. Gestede hammered the ball clear on the edge of his own area, and Rhodes pounced when Michael Mancienne showed indecision in how to deal with it.

The marksman, who had gone five games without a goal, managed to work half a yard for a shot and curled a neat right-foot finish in to the far corner from close to the by-line.

By now Rovers looked like scoring every time they went forward. Gestede headed wide from a Craig Conway cross from inside the six-yard box, before a swift counter attack in injury time saw Cairney denied by Darlow when through on goal.